Brandon Smith (Redwoodtwig)

Seeing Like a Tree

Truth is always hard to pin down, yet that is what is behind the concept of a documentary story. Reporting accurately about someone or something at a given place and time, observed from a point of view. Rather like a photograph is an absolutely true report of what the camera system captured at a particular place and time. Only in the case of a video story, the place is much larger and the time is measured in hours and days rather than fractions of a second. The truth of a photograph depends entirely on how the photographer composes the shot, while the truth of a video documentary depends entirely on how the videographer/editor/publisher practices their art, composing many views and selecting what will be seen and heard so that some sort of truth may emerge.

In "Seeing Like a Tree," Zhongbo found several truths about the art forms I've been working on the past few years. These truths are her truths, but since she's laid them out in a form I can understand, I have to agree they are true. Therefore, her video is a document, a true report, about a particular aspect of a person. In this case a reasonably accurate version of my personal truth.